Mrs C Ras, a new subscriber this season, won a pair of tickets to bring friends to the Triple Concerto on April 9.

Concert Caveat

There will be no platform tickets for the concert this week. There will be a dress rehearsal on both Thursdays. Please also note that the State of the Nation address takes place on Thursday, February 12, so make sure that roads closed have been reopened on time and thus impact on your arrival at the City Hall.

Dress rehearsals have been an absolute boon, especially for older people not willing to come to the city centre at night. The musicians also enjoy having an audience. It is worth every cent of the R50 that admission has risen to â€“ it remains R20 for scholars. Admission is managed by FOM.

Galway Festival

After Sir James Galwayâ€™s concert with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and members of the SA National Youth Orchestra and CPYO on Wednesday, February 11, at the City Hall, thereâ€™ll be a full-on Galway festival at UCT. Galway and his flautist wife Lady Jeanne will give a recital at the Baxter on February 17, a recital by the UCT Flute faculty, which includes CPO principal flute Gabrielle van DÃ¼rckheim on the 18th, followed by a recital by young flautist Marlene Verwey on the 20th, and a number of master classes. More information 084 682 1337. Tickets Computicket.

A family affair

Although there are still two concerts with Yi-Jia Susanne Hou (violin) and Maria du Toit (clarinet) in the current International Summer Festival, plus the red-carpet showcase with the CP Youth Orchestra and Wind Ensemble on February 19th, itâ€™s not too soon to think of autumn, the season conducted by Dimitry Yablonsky and featuring his mother, pianist Oxana Yablonskaya, his wife, the violinist Janna Gandelman, and himself as cellist as well. Subscription renewals open for one week on Monday, February 9, and two weeks later new subscribers can buy the season or single seats. Two subscribers, one existing and one new, can each win a pair of tickets to the Juliet Quartet on the Cape Town Concert Series platform on April 25. The full programme is on our website.

Oxana Yablonskaya

Maria du Toit next week

After a sensational appearance at Kirstenbosch when not a sound disturbed the unbelievable pianissimo of Maria du Toitâ€™s Mozart Clarinet Concerto, she will give you FranÃ§aix on Thursday, Febuary 12. Read all about in this story from the Cape Times here.

Friends of young musicians

The CPO is indebted once more to FOM. Via The FOM Trust, FOM has awarded bursaries to two of our young musicians. Noluvuyo Nteta, CPYO violinist and Masidlale teacher, and Jeffrey Armstrong, concertmaster of the CPYO, both received grants to assist with their further studies.

Nolu has enrolled at the University of Stellenbosch to study for a Music Diploma over the next three years (and continue her Masidlale teaching), while Jeffrey will study at the University of Birmingham with Professor Pieter Schoeman. We wish these young musicians all the best for their studies.

Korngold Project Valentine's concert

Before you go the Castle for the Cape Town Philharmonicâ€™s Valentineâ€™s concert, you can hear the next concert in the Korngold Project at 4pm at the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre in Parow on Saturday, February 14. Cape Town favourites Daniel Rowland, Gareth Lubbe and Julian Arp are joined by colleagues Benjamin Roskams (BBC Symphony Orchestra) and Francesco Sica (Trio Monte) plus local cellist Peter Martens and the pianist Luis MagalhÃ£es to take their recording of Korngoldâ€™s chamber works one step further. The programme includes the Piano Quintet in E major, Op. 15, and the String Sextet in D, Op. 10. Tickets via Webtickets and Pick and Pay. R110/ R90 for pensioners; R50 for students. More information: info@louisehowlett.co.za / 084 682 1337 for more information.

CPYO makes sweet music

The Manyano Centre in Paarl was the location of this yearâ€™s annual CPYO camp, and to judge from the enthusiastic response from some of the 70 youngsters it was again a winner.
The purpose of the camp, organized by education and outreach manager Laurika Steenkamp, was to provide Intensive training in new repertoire and concentrate on what is being played on February 19 at the City Hall. Being part of the CPOâ€™s summer festival is the reason, and although it is early in the academic year for such hard work, it works!
According to violist Jessica Rossouw, â€œBeing on this camp also reminded me of how much I have grown musically in the last year. It's a great feeling knowing that you are now able to play music you couldnâ€™t possibly have fathomed before!â€ She went on to say how much she appreciates that conductors (Brandon Phillips and Faan Malan) and CPO members (12 were mentors at the camp) gave up their valuable time to be help them work through familiar and unfamiliar pieces.

Jessicaâ€™s twin, clarinettist Amy Rossouw says: â€œThe intenseness of waiting before your audition, swimming every moment you have to spare in of the sweltering heat, making a grand bunch of new friends, learning a large repertoire in two days â€¦And the jamming! Oh my word, the jamming!â€
The camp was sponsored in full by the CPO to thank the young musicians who participated in the all-night shoot at the City Hall last October for the new Sean Penn/Charlize Theron film.

The Music Academy has a new home

The CPOâ€™s Music Academy has grown â€“ each week 120 young learners come for lessons and the academy has now outgrown its base since 2004, Good Hope Seminary High School in Cape Town. In stepped music teacher and former CPYO concertmaster Wesley Lewis and headmaster Keith Long of Rhodes High School to offer space to accommodate 15 teachers and 2 conductors who offer tuition and coaching by 15 teachers for the junior wind ensemble, junior string ensemble, eight theory classes and, sometimes, the two youth orchestras.
Says Mr Lewis: â€œ The synergy is uplifting and enthralling, not to mention highly exciting! This will bring excitement to the school and help the Rhodes High School community in its beautiful setting draw more and more people into our life. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship!â€
So do we, and we thank both Rhodes and Good Hope Seminary for their generosity.

Night of Duets!

The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and Cape Town Opera joint endowment trust, Duet, was launched in August 2014 for the advancement and preservation of both companies. Celebrate the establishment with the Cape Town Opera and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra on February 22 at Artscape Opera at 18:00 as they bring you the best of symphonic and opera music.
The concert features the versatile Cape Philharmonic Orchestra and Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, the young choral members from the St Andrewâ€™s Primary school in Saldanha, vocal soloists Derick Ellis, Arline Jaftha, Bongani Kubheka, Goitsemang Lehobye, Mandisinde Mbuyazwe, Lukhanyo Moyake, Xolela Sixaba and Siphamandla Yakupa along with piano soloists Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhaes with works from Verdi, Mascagni, Puccini and Poulenc and more. Directed by Christine Crouse and conducted by Kamal Khan.
Tickets are R250 from Computicket.